By Richard Gaines
NEW BEDF0RD — Mayor Scott Lang, who locked arms with Congressman Barney Frank and Gov. Deval Patrick last month in a political Phalanx that convinced federal officials to liberate an additional $40 million in the allowable scallop catch, has set up a meeting of fishery stakeholders to jump-start the problem-solving process.
Lang told his Ocean and Fisheries Council, a regional assembly of fishing interests, Monday that he would schedule a meeting with invitees — including agents of environmental groups — in March, 30 days ahead of the next meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council.
"We'll do what the government is supposed to be doing," said Lang, "(and) present our findings to the government so that they will say, 'Why didn't we think of that?'"
The New England management council, an arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service, next meets April 27-29, in Mystic, Conn.
Lang also told the Times yesterday he remained committed to his Freedom of Information request aimed at determining the informal influences on the council's decision-making process that produced an initial scallop allocation $40 million below the level recommended by the independent Science and Statistical Committee.
More than a month ago, Lang asked for documents from the management council that he believes will track influences from environmental groups and other interests that may have borne on the council's initial decision.
Although the deadline for producing the documents requested has passed, Lang said he was confident the government would comply with his request.
The council reversed itself two weeks ago after Gov. Deval Patrick made a personal appeal to council Chairman John Pappalardo, who capitulated and put the issue back on the agenda; Patrick's effort had come after Frank called for Pappalardo to step down if the scallop limit were not taken up for reconsideration. A number of councilors objected to what they viewed as heavy-handed political pressure.
Lang told his council Monday those complaints were hypocritical, noting that members of the council were political appointees.
"The emperor has no clothes," he noted.
In a telephone interview, he repeated his concern that the federal council was subject to improper influences.
Among the topics for the agenda of the March "shadow" council meeting — according to marine scientist Brian Rothschild, who advises and presides for Lang at the irregular bi-monthly meetings of his panel — is the laundry list of unsolved problems off Frank's congressional desk.
These include the May 1 rollout of catch-share fishing through voluntary cooperatives called "sectors" — a system described Monday as flawed and unstable and likely to collapse by midsummer because of conservative catch limits, especially on pollock.
Vito Giacalone, policy director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, which has organized 13 of the 17 sectors with members who have been assigned nearly 80 percent of the groundfish allocation, reported that the National Marine Fisheries Service is relying on manual, paper reporting instead of the electronic system that was anticipated.
"The electronic system is non-existent, there's a mismatch there," said Giacalone.
In the shift from the former days at sea effort controls to catch limits, pressure shifts from tracking the activities of the boats to scrutiny of what comes aboard, putting a premium on the reporting system.
"Sectors will be shutdown for the year by July or August," said Carlos Raphael, who owns New Bedford's largest fleet, about 25 boats.
Giacalone said he believes "interruptions" will occur as sectors reach the allocation limits for pollock and perhaps other species and permitholders explore how to buy up supplementary allocations.
The free marketing of allocation is a key characteristic of the catch-share system. In virtually all other regions and nations that have converted to the system, allocation has ended up concentrated in a few hands as competition and smaller independent boats and businesses were eliminated.
Frank expressed worries about this aspect of the system in a meeting with and follow up letter to NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco last October. Her response last month left Frank exasperated.
Lang told his council Monday that "no one in the room (for the meeting of his group in March) will be denied the chance to speak."
He added that "everyone agrees" the management council system "has not worked appropriately."
The comment was an apparent reference to a letter from Pappalardo to Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke in December, which asked for a study of how the fishery management system could be improved.
While carefully lauding the federal system of regulating fisheries — which has been under fierce attack by multiple niches of the industry and a growing chorus from Congress — Pappalardo conceded that "our region's bureaucracy is unable to efficiently meet its expanded obligations."
Pappalardo also admitted "our bureaucracy is often driven by process and protocol rather than by mission and outcome."
He asked Locke — the cog in the bureaucracy between President Obama and NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco, to support funding for an "established management consultant" who would review the relationship between the trio of federal agencies responsible for the strained relationship with the industry and make recommendations.
Lang has reached a different suspected diagnosis — suggesting there was reason to believe that the driver, rather than process and protocol, was agenda-driven environmental interests.
Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464, or via e-mail at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com
